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Connecticut Winter Woods Wednesday, Feb 12 2014
Landscapes and Modern Photos connecticut, photography, winter 08:11
A Classic garden Friday, Jan 31 2014
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos clematis, gardening, iris, photography 08:52
Clematis ‘Henryi’ and ‘Nelly Moser’; unknown old single red peony, mixed columbine, unknown old yellow and blue iris. Purple Heuchera, variegated Asian grass, woodbine (Virginia Creeper). The Little (summer) kitchen south of the house.
50 years apart Thursday, Jan 23 2014
gardening and Historic Photos and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening 11:17
I couldn’t quite get the same photo angle, what I ought to do is go out and exactly retake some of the early photos. But it is interesting to look at these two photos. The first is from 1961, the second from 2011:
Moving from L to R: you can see two low branches of the Gingko in the upper left, since pruned out. Behind that is the white pine which came down in two pieces during the 1990’s; the garden area (mid left) appears to be largely an overgrown thicket, just off left-center midground is a young blue spruce, that never flourished in what was much too wet and shady an area. Directly behind it is a double trunk black cherry, removed in the mid 1990’s. The small garden path between the cherry and the hemlock is visible, this remains today. A particularly interesting tree is the small sapling in front of the hemlock. This is the leaning oak, it is an important piece of the landscape today, but is still an awkward looking tree because it does lean. However, it really is gangly in this photo. To the right of the hemlock is a pine that came down in the 1990’s (we lost several in that decade, self-thinning). The pillar has no euonymous bush on it. The fringe tree on the far right still remains.
Not quite the same photo: You can see where those low gingko branches were finally taken off, much later than they should have been (when it became apparent a fire truck would not be able to get in the drive). The garden and the area beyond the garden has regained a lot of structure. Those maples are actually in the previous photo, but because of the overgrowth (mostly Norway Maple saplings) you couldn’t see them. The hemlock on the right has not gotten much wider, though it has gotten taller; the thicket of dark shrubs to the hemlock’s left is where the black cherry was. The oak is the real change: all you can see is its trunk. In front of that is a young Norway spruce planted about 8 years ago.
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Reminders Thursday, Jan 9 2014
Esperanza and gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, photography 08:58
A reminder that last winter was no more kind than this year’s; and this was the result…
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If a tree falls in a forest… Saturday, Dec 28 2013
Landscapes and Trees philosophy 13:50
The woods, of course, are far from silent. Even in a snow storm there is noise: snowflakes falling through the branches with the faintest rasp of ice. Frozen solid, the crack of a tree yielding to the cold will sound like a light rifle. On an ordinary day, there is the chatter of squirrels, birds, rustling leaves, maybe even insects, water, a multitude. But what is wonderful about the forest is that this symphony has nothing, nothing to do with man. It will go on whether we listen or not. We can deafen ourselves to it, we have for the most part done so already. However, we can not silence it.
If a tree falls in a forest, the forest hears. It could care less if we hear it. We would do well to remember that.
THUD Thursday, Dec 26 2013
Landscapes and Modern Photos photography, trees 10:12
Well, it had to fall over some day…this big sugar maple snapped about a dozen years ago, the snag toppled the other day in the rain and wind. For a bit of scale, the young tree it is leaning against is about 8 inches in diameter (dbi). At its greatest, the fallen trunk is around five feet tall and three feet wide. The second photo is taken from over fifty feet away. Big snags like this always put me in mind of some of the illustrations and descriptions in Moby Dick, whales of the forest.
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Through the glass Friday, Dec 13 2013
Landscapes and Modern Photos photography 18:42
Dark Nights Wednesday, Dec 11 2013
Landscapes 22:44
The snow around here hasn’t melted, or even fallen off the trees, so it is quite beautiful on a still, cold night with a little moon and the stars. The darkness is balanced by the great amount of light that reflects from everywhere and nowhere off the snow. A beautiful night, very calm and still. Gorgeous but not kind, a sense that winter so often brings.
That being said, I have to admit the man-sized patch of fog at Witches’ Corner* on the way up the hill, late at night, in the middle of the road, on a night with no fog and too cold for open water in a culvert? Just a tad creepy. I know there are springs thereabouts so it probably was due to flowing water, but still creepy!
*The old road alignment switchbacked there, and horses apparently always spooked.
Winter Fog Thursday, Dec 5 2013
Landscapes weather 14:26
While we still aren’t getting much in the way of rain, the really dry weather seems to have quit.* Yesterday morning there was a lovely bit of hoar frost down in the river valley. Today, is one of those foggy still days, with visibility at about 100 ft. I can just see the top of the big Norway Spruce so visibility upwards is about 110 feet (a handy measuring stick there!) The meadow, of course, with nothing in it is just a solid grey cloud bank, a wall; the fog in the woods gradually obscures things so there is more apparent depth. I like days like this; somehow they are quieter, calmer.
*the water companies seem to have decided that if the reservoirs are low they might as well do work, took a trip over to Boston yesterday and I think that every single reservoir/water facility had some work being done!
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Old Sugar Maples Tuesday, Dec 3 2013
gardening and Landscapes and Modern Photos gardening, maples, photography 14:38
Out beyond the big garden, lining the old road. It is essentially impossible to get a good picture of them, too big and too close! I cannot touch the bottom of those lower limbs, however, even on my toes and arm outstretched. We have planted beneath them with a mix of evergreens, as the new road/highway is only about fifty feet away from this point, off to the right of the photo.
Acair Fearann 